Understanding nature through sounds. Auditory representations in the life sciences

Scientists from the life sciences claim they can enhance their understanding of natural phenomena through sonifications, a kind of auditory representation. There is agreement among philosophers of science that scientists achieve understanding through explanations, theories, and models, but can auditory representations enable understanding? My thesis aims to provide the epistemic conditions to achieve scientific understanding via auditory representations, providing a philosophical justification for these scientists' claims. After explaining what auditory representations are and introducing a pluralistic account of understanding, I use this account to analyze historical and contemporary case studies from the life sciences where auditory representations are used in scientific practice. Subsequently, I discuss visual representations in the life sciences and discuss a criterion that could explain how scientists choose among different kinds of representations in their work. The methodology I adopted in the research process combines three approaches. The first approach is a strictly philosophical one, in line with the tradition of analytic philosophy of science, that I use to construct the account of understanding; the second one is a naturalistic approach, for during my philosophical argumentations, I often refer back to literature from cognitive science and psychology; the third one is a historical approach, in line with the tradition of HPS (history and philosophy of science), that I used to reconstruct the case studies.